CM Punk & Wrestling's Best Storyline in Years...

[Req]

this one's doing the rounds again

[Kalel]

Legit emotions ...



Question for the class - do you feel that the WWE is better off now than it was when Punk first came up to the main roster?

[907]

Yes.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

I went to Chikara's NYC show tonight and while the whole night was pretty fun, I was blown away by "Smooth Sailing" Ashley Remington. I don't know if anyone else has seen him, but his gimmick as a good natured Yacht Captain is brilliant and I could honestly see working outside of Chikara in any ring you could put him in.

He has a promo here at 1:41



I'm tempted to put what he does from bell-to-bell in the spoiler, but part of me wants to leave that to surprise you if you see his matches. Dude is brilliant and beyond committed to his character.

[ayentee]

Battleground check in

[Sylissez]

This is the first PPV I'll be home for to stream on my TV. Pretty cysed.

I haven't seen any Chikara stuff, but I enjoyed that Ashley Remington promo.

[william g.]

Is the $9.99 a month fee for the WWE NETWORK include the LIVE events?..a lady at my local cable company said no,you have to pay extra for the live events.

Also,does the network show the re-runs of the live events the next day/week at no cost?

Thank's!

[Pizon]

The live PPVs and replays on demand are included in the price.

[Sylissez]

Is the $9.99 a month fee for the WWE NETWORK include the LIVE events?..a lady at my local cable company said no,you have to pay extra for the live events.

Also,does the network show the re-runs of the live events the next day/week at no cost?

Thank's!

She worked ya.

The PPVs and other special live events (like NXT) are included in the price and are available on demand immediately after they air. Raw and (I believe) Smackdown don't show up for a few weeks due to their TV deals. I think it's definitely worth the price.

So far Battleground has been pretty solid. Ambrose is gonna be such a fucking star.

[Kalel]

Tag match is still match of the night so far. That was a Wrestlemania caliber match. Whole PPV has been fantastic though.

[blastmaster]

Let Dolph live!!! Fuck.

[ObeseJesus]

Yeah the tag match was the match of the night. I thought it was a really mediocre PPV over all though. Ambrose and Rollins was going to be the match of the night and it didn't even happen.

[Pizon]

Best case scenario - They're trying to build a Daniel Bryan like crowd rebellion for Dolph.

[Sylissez]

Yeah, so that ended up being a PPV that didn't need to happen. With the benefit of a little foresight, they could have kept Jinder and Drew and saved money by not wasting time with this PPV. I'm fine with Cena going over, but Reigns needed to be elevated in that match and he wasn't. The fact that they threw Kane and Orton in there showed that they don't trust Reigns to go one on one to headline a PPV. And that's ok, cause he's probably not ready. But until he can do that, he's just a guy who isn't on the Orton/Cena/whoever level.

What else? Lotta weird botches and miscues tonight. In almost every match. I audibly lol'd when Slater eliminated Cesaro. Straight trollin'. Bo shoulda won the way Miz won, but w/e. Paige should be taken off TV until she can work on her facials. Everything is either angsty RAGE(!) or puppy-just-died crying. Fucking awful.

Stardust though. Cody is so goddamn good at the weird shit.

[907]

Besides the tag match, this show was pretty awful. It was like a good episode of Raw, and had more setups for SummerSlam than payoffs.

[Brougham33]

Loved the tag match, love Stardust, enjoyed Bray/Jericho, and I pretty much hate all fatal 4 way matchups. I thought all the spots in the main event felt a little forced, and them protecting Reigns is going to backfire imo. I really miss Daniel Bryan.

[blastmaster]

I really hate how they are booking the mid card right now. There is so much talent there. Dolph, Cesaro, Ryder, Sin Cara etc deserve way better.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

battleground was pretty fuckin horrible

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Loved the tag match, love Stardust, enjoyed Bray/Jericho, and I pretty much hate all fatal 4 way matchups. I thought all the spots in the main event felt a little forced, and them protecting Reigns is going to backfire imo. I really miss Daniel Bryan.

why did you enjoy that? Bray should have gone over Jericho. Furthermore, Jericho is looking pretty damn old out there. He is out of shape, and is noticeably slower than he once was...

[mike eagle]

yeah i didnt understand jericho going over. i thought he was there to put over younger guys

[blastmaster]

Jericho will do the right thing at Summer Slam. They need to give some weight to the feud anyway.

[BigCat8]

Xavier Woods and Zack Ryder eliminated in the opening minute of the battle royal had me laughing. Like, it was almost too obvious. Ryder got a huge pop, and his night was done in about 30 seconds. I love me some Cesaro (and he had a pretty cool exchange with Kofi), but Slater eliminating him was a great sneaky heel move. Like, "I see you're over there trying to stay in this match. Be a shame if someone were to eliminate you." And everyone I was watching with was dreading the Miz finish, because we all knew it was coming.

Honestly, that whole PPV was kinda deflating. I can't think of a single result I was 100% happy about. John Cena is a walking parody of himself at this point. They try to paint him as an underdog and talk about how the odds are stacked against him, but when he defies the odds 100% of the time, he's not the underdog anymore- he's an overpowered superman. It's why CENAWINSLOL is a thing.

Shout out to the highlight of the night, the nameplate typo that referred to Seth Rollins as the "Money in the Back Winner".

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Loved the tag match, love Stardust, enjoyed Bray/Jericho, and I pretty much hate all fatal 4 way matchups. I thought all the spots in the main event felt a little forced, and them protecting Reigns is going to backfire imo. I really miss Daniel Bryan.

why did you enjoy that? Bray should have gone over Jericho. Furthermore, Jericho is looking pretty damn old out there. He is out of shape, and is noticeably slower than he once was...

yeah i didnt understand jericho going over. i thought he was there to put over younger guys

Jericho winning is what had to happen in order to properly put Bray over.

Jericho will do the right thing at Summer Slam. They need to give some weight to the feud anyway.

Exactly. Allow me to explain: Jericho exists as the cagey veteran who is something of the gatekeeper to the main event scene who can make new young talent not only look great whether they win or lose, but make their victories kickstart their momentum because of his reputation.

That reputation, however, has to be somewhat maintained in order for it to mean something. If Jericho just predictibly lost-lost-lost everytime he faced some young pup, that would discredit his status as one of the greatest in kayfabe and the eyes of the casual fans.

Beating Bray was the right call if only for the spectacular evolution we're going to get from Bray once they square off at Summerslam.

It's not a "the damage is already done" or "Bray is unsalvageable" situation, and there is some precedence for this. At Summerslam 2012, Jericho beat Ziggler. Same confused outrage from the Ziggler fans over whether or not Jericho was going to put him over. The next night on Raw, Ziggler is convinced to put his MITB contract on the line against Jericho's Raw contract. Stakes are raised, pressure is on and Dolph wins convincingly, putting him over much, much more so than a one-and-done at Summerslam the previous night would have been.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

[blastmaster]

Lol Ryder got a win on TV!!!!!

[Pizon]

"I won?"

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Lol Ryder got a win on TV!!!!!

[blastmaster]

Lol. Nice to see Dolph, Ryder and Cesaro all look good. The stable full of angry black dudes might be cool. Woods is good on the mic. Please call them Affirmative Action.

Summer Slam looks good with Lesnar vs Cena, Roman vs. Orton and Ambrose vs. Rollins at the top. Throw Miz vs Ziggler vs Shaemus, Rusev vs. Swagger, Bray vs Jericho and another Wyatt's vs. Usos banger or involve Rybaxle and Dust Bros and it could be decent. Put some one over by beating Bo Dallas (Ryder would be too much to ask. Maybe a Cesaro face turn via the return of the swing) and Paige vs. AJ and that shit is stacked.

[zappy]

read a thing on bleacher last week about why miz had to win the belt, and it made a lot of sense.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2133 ... ttleground" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Brougham33]

Yep, Summerslam is stacked, in addition to all that, we are likely getting Brie vs Stephanie right?